Russian icon

Many scholars consider Rublev's Trinity

the most perfect of all Russian icons

and perhaps the most perfect of all the icons ever painted.

I prefer to call it 'The Three Graces'.

clipped from http://www.rollins.edu/Foreign_Lang/Russian/trinity.html

The Anthroplogy of YouTube

This was presented by Michael Wesch at the Library of Congress, June 23rd 2008. It is 55 minutes long and WELL worth a look.

Society hard-wired for a fall?

Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent
The Australian
June 14, 2008

Here is a sample of an article on Susan Greenfield, ‘a passionate advocate for taking science to the masses’. It can be read as a companion article to my previous post:

People who spend many hours a day in front of computer screens and televisions, she warns, are going through an unprecedented process in which the brain is churning out and consuming excessive amounts of a natural chemical called dopamine. Other brain scientists agree that heightened levels of dopamine could produce important changes in the fine wiring and functions of the brain, suppressing certain types of more sophisticated thinking.

The hard scientific evidence is limited but Greenfield believes the result of all that screen time and addictive dopamine will be the biggest physical changes to the human brain since the Neanderthals 100,000 years ago, producing changes in behaviour and thought patterns that amount to nothing less than a different type of person.

Older generations - she describes them as "the people of the book" - have developed powers of imagination, empathy, context and meaning which she fears will be much reduced in "the people of the screen".

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23858718-28737,00.html
previous

Is Google making us stupid?

Nicholas Carr
Atlantic Monthly
July/August 2008

Here is a sample of this extremely important article subtitled 'What the Internet is doing to our brains':

Thanks to the ubiquity of text on the Internet, not to mention the popularity of text-messaging on cell phones, we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was our medium of choice. But it’s a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking—perhaps even a new sense of the self. “We are not only what we read,” says Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University and the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. “We are how we read.” Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace. When we read online, she says, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.

Reading, explains Wolf, is not an instinctive skill for human beings. It’s not etched into our genes the way speech is. We have to teach our minds how to translate the symbolic characters we see into the language we understand. And the media or other technologies we use in learning and practicing the craft of reading play an important part in shaping the neural circuits inside our brains. Experiments demonstrate that readers of ideograms, such as the Chinese, develop a mental circuitry for reading that is very different from the circuitry found in those of us whose written language employs an alphabet. The variations extend across many regions of the brain, including those that govern such essential cognitive functions as memory and the interpretation of visual and auditory stimuli. We can expect as well that the circuits woven by our use of the Net will be different from those woven by our reading of books and other printed works.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

HOPE

Hope is a film that documents the fate of the people-smuggling vessel SIEV-X and the 353 people who died when it sank en route to Australia. Here is the link to the official website: http://www.hopedocumentary.com.au/hope/index.htm

For the past three years Steve Biddulph has been working to build a suitable memorial in Canberra for victims and survivors of the SIEV X sinking. The photo above that shows a few of the 353 memorial poles is taken from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIEV-X#SIEV_X_Memorial

The Medieval Imagination

There has been a a marvellous series of free lectures at the State Library of Victoria around the event, 'The Medieval Imagination', an exhibition of medieval manuscripts. The above video reminds us of the disruptive nature of the new technology of 'the book' and this link gives a taste of the exhibition, including a gallery and audio tour,
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/programs/exhibitions/kmg/2008/medieval_imagination

Aramaic

This is the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke. It illustrates so well the distinctive sound and flavour of Eastern Christianity, much of which has been forgotten and lost in the West. When I listen to this being chanted, it reminds me of the whirling dervishes, both their music and movement. I read once that prostrations were a common practice in early Christianity, something associated with Islam today.

The tree is blooming

These purple flowers symbolise the growth so far

and the promise of growth to come.

From little things...

A Tree of Knowledge

This 'Tree of Knowledge' was made

by the 2008 BALD students.

Season of mellow fruitfulness

Right now, the deck still looks much like this but soon...

It will look like this, a photo taken on our deck last autumn...

My third Jing/screencast.com combination

I took this photo in Janey's kitchen last week.

My second, this time still, Jing

My first Jing screencast, a video

New Year's Breakfast 2008

THE INVITATION

NEW YEAR’S BREAKFAST 2008

Journeys: Past and Future

Journeys change us - emotionally, intellectually, politically, aesthetically and spiritually - so that we are never the same as before.

Australia is now embarking on a new journey.

From our experience of journeys, what message do we have for our fellow Australian citizens for 2008?

As a starting point, we suggest you bring A PIECE OF WRITING OR IMAGE related to travel – to any destination, for any reason. This might be a postcard (sent or received), a photo, a letter, a journal extract or aerogram.

WHEN: 11am, Tuesday, 1st January 2008

THE BREAKFAST TABLE -

before and after

Different seasons in my garden

In our water-deprived garden, this lush mosiac made in the middle of last year feels especially precious...

A library mosaic

Zorba the Greek Yolngu style

Frank Djirrimbilpilwuy from Milingimbi has been in the Indigenous Media Industry for many years and has been a long-standing member and supporter of the Top End Aboriginal Bush Broadcasting Association, TEABBA Radio. As the man behind the camera and release of the video, Frank is also representing the dance group who call themselves "The Chooky Dancers". Frank has said that he filmed the footage at this years Ramingining Festival on the 30th September 2007 and knew it would be "something special" as soon as he saw the boys rehearsing.

The Chooky Dancers are a group of 10 energetic young men who had healthy living in mind when they choreographed the performance. Frank's son Lionel is the lead dancer in the video footage at front and center. "They (the Chooky Dancers) begun working on this just after this years Garma Festival in Gukula and worked very hard on it, they also do a Bollywood style performance which is also fantastic" Frank said.

A vision of students today

This is a short YouTube video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime.
Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.

Crossing Thresholds from 20th to 21st Century

I made this slide show quite a while ago but still love what it says.

The music is courtesy of www.freeplaymusic.com

In honour of the Garden Gals

I made this digital story after our latest gathering yesterday.
We have been meeting every six weeks for over ten tears.

The music, 'Arriving Abroad', is courtesy of www.freeplaymusic.com

Maria's roses

BubbleShare: Share photos - Here comes Halloween!

These are an enduring memory of our day in Euroa.

The Classy Cronies assemble again

I made this story in honour of our group
that has been meeting for fifteen years or more...

The music, 'Tea for Two', is provided by www.freeplaymusic.com.

FANCY FOOTWORK arrives!

This post featuring 'Women of Spirit', with photos taken a few months later, complements the earlier one.

Circulating ACE Wisdom

I prepared this slide show for the first 'Circulating ACE Wisdom' project workshop early in August.

Women of Spirit

During the course of planning our book, Fancy Footwork, Helena Spyrou took these photos, in case we wanted portraits in the book. Later, we decided not.

For information about Fancy Footwork, visit the VALBEC site, http://www.valbec.org.au.

The music, 'Lotus Blossom', is provided by www.freeplaymusic.com.

The angel on our deck

I used fd's Flickr Toys, http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/captioner.php, to create this caption.

Doorways and openings

A colleague and I took these photos around St Kilda just before 2000, in preparation for a conference presentation called 'Crossing Thresholds'.

A 'Google Docs' experiment

^{Who knows if there's another book coming?
Only Brigid can tell...
She will let me know.}

Would you like to add yourself to this Frappr map?

Apollo Bay 2006

This is my first attempt with a digital video camera.

Bollards 2

Today, I have been playing with YouTube and
hence this embedding of an early digital story.

St Brigid's cathedral, Kildare

Now, I'm clipmarking an image.

clipped from kildare.ie Early Christian motif piece possibly dating from the 10th. century

My first clipmark

This is my latest discovery.

clipped from kildare.ie <H1>Saint Brigid </H1><B>St Brigid - Mary of the Gael - is second only to St Patrick in the esteem of the Irish people. She is, of course, specially associated with Kildare and the whole area of Magh Life (The Liffey Plain). </B><BR>

Meet my talking avatar

Get a Voki now!



She was created in Voki.

del.icio.us link

Quick Topic

QuickTopic is a free message board hosting service that provides an instant online discussion space. You can try it here.




Discuss reflective learning

Finding a map of Australia

Live Search Maps

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=-31.278551~124.760742&style=h&lvl=4&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&encType=1

Here is the angel

As I could not upload this image via Windows Online Writer (without FTP),

I did it inside Blogger.

I want to bring the peace and goodwill that she represents into this blog.

Windows Live Writer

This is the first time I have tried Live Writer.

I chose the angel on our deck

to announce this change

but am having trouble uploading images.

My first photo mosaic, now enlarged

Today, I learnt how to make a photo mosaic in Flickr.

I called it, 'Seasons in My Garden'.

Purple a-plenty magnified

This is the second photo mosaic I tried,
a different arrangement this time.

Voice Thread

This is Voice Thread that allows multiple contributors.

WalkieTalkie

AFLF E-trends June 2007 online event

Here are the slides I prepared for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (AFLF) June 2007 E-trends one-hour panel conversation called 'The Realities of E-learning in the 21st Century'.

The panel members were:
Leigh Blackall – Educational Technologist, NZ
Wendy Zammit – E-learning practitioner, Sydney
Tony Carr - Co-ordinator: Staff Development,South Africa
Delia Bradshaw - Nomadic Adult Educator, Melbourne.

It was chaired by Michael Coghlan.

AccessACE Workshop, June 20 2007

I created a Slide Show!

Another irresistible plaything, slide.com...
snapshots from my 60th birthday at Bud's.

Slideshare: good for PPTs

Slideshare allows me to upload Power Point files

such as this one that I made

for the Converge 2006 conference in Melbourne.

Birthday orchids

It is nearly six weeks

since Di gave me these

for my 60th birthday.

Each day, I revel in

their beauty and longevity.

Chelsea

We are having a good time.

I made this post as part of a session at Chelsea Longbeach Centre last Friday. Afterwards, I walked down The Strand, past the spot where I spent three years of my life in late adolescence. As with the Cheltenham post office residence, my home is no longer there, demolished for more modern buildings. It was beautiful to walk right onto the beach. When I lived there, I was barely aware of this glorious location, my mind being so university-centred.

Me in Second Life

GippsTafe Students originally uploaded by joannamkay.

The avatar in red and blue is me, Biddy LaFontaine. This is the momentous day of the launch of the resort, last Monday.

My Podomatic now lives here too

St Kildascape, Winter 2006

St Kildascape, Winter 2006, originally uploaded by deliab.

I'm glad I took this photo, at our back door, about a month ago. Already, the splendid moment is passed.

I posted the photo here directly from Flickr.

Another view of WOMAD

This album is powered by
BubbleShare
- Add to my blog

Not wooden women

I joined You Tube today.

It's marvellous to be able to send my digital story straight to my Biddy blog.

I made this early work in summer last year.

Winter splendour in St Kilda

I love this photo!

I am going to send it from here, Writely,

(a truly magical online word processor),

to my Biddyjournal blog.

Scarfscape

I have had a delightful day today,
filming a diversity of scapes around St Kilda.
I blogged this row of my scarves straight from Picasa.

 

A test e-mail post: Global Voices Online

I sent the information below to this spot by e-mail.

The world is talking. Are you listening?

A growing number of bloggers around the world are emerging as “bridge bloggers:” people who are talking about their country or region to a global audience. Global Voices is your guide to the most interesting conversations, information, and ideas appearing around the world on various forms of participatory media such as blogs, podcasts, photo sharing sites, and videoblogs.

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/top/about-global-voices/

Another ODEO post: Amergin with music

powered by ODEO
This time I uploaded an mp3 file to ODEO and then uploaded it from there to here. I also chose a different design for the audio player. Links to a podcast are below.

http://odeo.com/audio/1403614/view

Another ODEO post: Amergin's poem read aloud

powered by ODEO

I recorded an audiopost at ODEO and then uploaded it from there to here. Links to a podcast are below.

http://odeo.com/audio/1403481/view

An ancient Celtic poem

I posted this poem from Word.

I have been in many shapes
I have been a narrow blade of grass
I have been a drop in the air
I have been a shining star
I have been a word in a book
I have been an eagle
I have been a boat on the sea
I have been a string on a harp
I have been enchanted for a year on the foam of the water
There is nothing in which I have not been.

An ancient Celtic poem, The Song of Amergin

Keeping track

I now have so many sites, I am being more conscientious about gathering them together in the one place. del.icio.us is ideal.

http://del.icio.us/deliab/deliamb

Lavender power

May the healing powers

of lavender

permeate my blog!

Another online repository

* I have just opened a new site at http://multiply.com.

* Slowly, I am trying to work out the distinctive qualities and virtues of all these online repositories and aggregators.

* On my site, you can see a photo of Biddy Bannon,

my Irish grandmother and this blog's namesake.

Delia's multiply site

A Change of Scene

On April 20th, I gave a presentation
called A Change of Scene.

I have a wikispace
called A Change of Scene.
You can find it at
http://snipurl.com/rpak.

For a sound and sight show, visit http://michalk.id.au/ala/aChangeofScene,
where Michael Chalk houses
his multimedia record of this event.

Venus Bay

This album is powered by
BubbleShare
- Add to my blog

My first ODEO phone blog

Testing with Audioblogger, May 29 2006

VALBEC 2006 Conference, May 5th 2006

These are the websites recommended in a handout distributed at the 2006 VALBEC conference. The workshop, co-presented with Michael Coghlan, was called
Different Voices, Different Spaces.

Audio tools
AUDACITY
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

AUDIOBLOGGING
http://audioblogger.com/
http://npaudio.blogspot.com/
http://mikecogh.blogspot.com//

PODOMATIC
http://www.podomatic.com/
http://michaelc.podomatic.com/
http://deliab.podomatic.com/

SKYPE
http://www.skype.com/helloagain.html

Other resources
ACAL
http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/course/view.php?id=221 (ACAL’s ‘Literacy Live’)

DIFFERENT VOICES, DIFFERENT SPACES website
http://dvds.flexiblelearning.net.au/index.html

DIFFERENT VOICES, DIFFERENT SPACES project report
http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/go/home/projects/2005/pid/126

DIFFERENT VOICES, DIFFERENT SPACES CD-ROM resource (2005)
http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/go/home/projects/2005/pid/126

MICHAEL’S SITES
http://users.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/mater/easy_voice.htm
http://users.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/nz/CLESOL/keynote_language.htm

NEW PRACTICES IN FLEXIBLE LEARNING 2005
http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/go/home/projects/2005/pid/54
(Resources for: Beyond Text, Connecting the Dots and Social Interactions Packs)

PODCAST DIRECTORY FOR EDUCATORS
http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/index.php

THE KNOWLEDGE TREE
http://knowledgetree.flexiblelearning.net.au/index.html

Source: Different Voices, Different Spaces workshop, VALBEC 2006 conference

WOMAD 2006: Towards utopia 2

Was this my favourite spot, the chai shop, The Holy Cow?

In honour of Brigid

Brigid's feast day is the 1st of February, Imbolc in the ancient Celtic calendar. Imbolc is the mid-winter celebration held to herald the return of light and fertility as the Earth prepares to awaken from her winter hibernation.

Coloured sands

This is my favourite image from WOMAD 2006,

the sands used by the Tibetan monks for their sand mandala.

WOMAD 2006: Towards utopia

These splendid lanterns festooned the whole park.

Below is a short digital story.